Sequel to Drum-Taps

poetry by Whitman

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July 13, 2026

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Sequel to Drum-Taps is a collection of poems by Walt Whitman, published in 1865. It is a continuation of his earlier work, Drum-Taps, which focused on the American Civil War. The poems in Sequel to Drum-Taps reflect on the war's impact, including the death of President Abraham Lincoln. Notable poems from this collection include "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" and Whitman's elegies for Lincoln, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd." These poems were later incorporated into the fourth edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The collection captures the mood of the nation during and after the Civil War, moving from initial excitement to a deeper understanding of suffering and loss.12

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Walt Whitman
Civil War years
Sequel to Drum-Taps, published in the autumn of 1865, contained “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” his great elegy on Pres. Abraham Lincoln. Whitman’s horror at the death of democracy’s first “great martyr chief ” was matched by his revulsion from the barbarities of…
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Sequel to Drum-Taps, published in the autumn of 1865, contained “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” his great elegy on Pres. Abraham Lincoln. Whitman’s horror at the death of democracy’s first “great martyr chief ” was matched by his revulsion from the barbarities of…
Read More

Drum-Taps
Sequel to Drum-Taps, published in the fall of 1865 (the title page reads 1865–66), includes “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” and Whitman’s poems on the death of Abraham Lincoln, “O Captain! My Captain!” and the elegy “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Both Drum-Taps and Sequel…
Read More
Sequel to Drum-Taps, published in the fall of 1865 (the title page reads 1865–66), includes “Pioneers! O Pioneers!” and Whitman’s poems on the death of Abraham Lincoln, “O Captain! My Captain!” and the elegy “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Both Drum-Taps and Sequel…
Read More

Leaves of Grass
Later editions
poems, Drum-Taps (1865) and Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865), were included in the fourth edition (1867). The latter contained two elegies—“O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”—which commemorate U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln
Read More
poems, Drum-Taps (1865) and Sequel to Drum-Taps (1865), were included in the fourth edition (1867). The latter contained two elegies—“O Captain! My Captain!” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”—which commemorate U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln
Read More